Indonesia Street Food Breakfast

Before I started my foodblog but already started to cook by my own (around 2007), Adventurelicious has been my playground. Reading the recipes and looking at the photos there were (and still are) my favorite activity whenever I have time to be online. It didn’t take times for me to instantly acclaimed myself as the author’s fan. I love the way she told us a story in each of her recipe and I adore her talent in food photography.

Now, the author of my fav foodblog, Vania Samperuru herself, is going to share you her breakfast experience. It’s really an honor for me to have her as my guest writer.

Now let’s join her breakfast adventure. Enjoy!

——–

Breakfast is possibly the best meal of the day.
It’s a ‘break’ from our nightly ‘fast’.
It recharges and re-nourishes us after a night of fasting.

Breakfast, as lunch or dinner, is a tradition; part of culture. In some part of the world, a piece of toast and a cup of coffee is enough to calm down a hungry stomach in morning. Some people like danish pastry, muffin, pancake, or waffle for their breakfast. Others probably choose noodle, or samosa, or sandwich, or croissant or other traditional buns.

For many Indonesian, not eating rice means not eating yet! So a bowl of rice (in many ways it is prepared) become the most popular breakfast in this country. It’s a big complete meal in one dish.

In these days, where life looks like going faster, preparing this kind of breakfast has become something luxury for many of us. Buying the ready-to-eat breakfast becomes one of the choices for many modern people.

Now, let me introduce some of the popular breakfast street-food that I can easy find around my housing complex, somewhere in South Jakarta. They are very popular meals in this country. They are delicious, warm, and of course… affordably cheap! Most of them are very easy to be found in every corner of this city.

Bubur Ayam/Chicken Porridge

At eight o’clock every morning, the seller ‘Mang Adang’ arrives on his usual spot with his three-wheelers push cart. Normally many customers have been already waiting patiently for his delicious chicken porridge.

Originaly, he comes from West Java, and his chicken porridge style is popular as Bubur Ayam Sukabumi.

As soon as you order, he will pour the fresh steamy rice porridge on to a bowl and add the aromatic yellowish sauce to give the flavor. I think this sauce is the secret of his porridge which differentiate it with competitors. Then he continues shredding the chicken meat on top of the porridge. His hands move swiftly to add cakwe (a special type of fried bread), fried soy bean, fresh chopped spring onion, fried onion and krupuk (crackers) on top of the porriage until you couldn’t see the porridge that is full covered by the topping.

The chilli sauce will be added by special order.

Everything is ready on his cart. In less than 2 minutes after receiving the order, a bowl of delicious chicken porridge is ready to enjoy. If you like, you can add fried chicken innard to your bowl.

For me, this is the best Chicken Porridge in Jakarta!

Steam Rice with Coconut Milk / Nasi Uduk

Honestly, I could never finish one portion of this delicious Nasi Uduk in one go. But my 9 years old son can do it. Ahaaa…this is his most favorite breakfast. It’s a big portion of a complete meal that ready every morning. Ibu Sariah is the lady behind this aromatic dish.

At six o’clock every morning, she is ready with her cart in one corner of the traditional market inside our housing complex. As soon as she opens her big red jar of the steamed rice that is cooked with coconut milk, the fragnant aroma of the rice will blow calling her customers in.

One portion of nasi uduk will be served with some side dish which depends on the customer. A full portion will be served with fried bihun (rice noodle), tender chicken, boiled egg, tempe and tofu, chilli sauce, and crackers. On top, she sprinkles the crunchy fried onion. The chicken, boiled eggs, tempe and tofu were cooked together with soy sauce gravy. You can have extra gravy, for free!

Don’t be late,… around 9.30am, this food will be gone.

Rice Cake with Vegetable/Lontong Sayur

This is another way to enjoy rice as our breakfast. Again… RICE.
Actually it is called Lontong Sayur; a compressed rice wrapped inside banana leaf then it is cut into small pieces and is served to accompany vegetables (chayote, kidney bean, carrot) gulai/curry, that cooked with coconut milk and flavoured with some spices. For additional side dish, we can order to add boiled egg or/and tofu.

Inside Mang Danang’s cart, we can see stacks of ketupat. Yup, he serves ketupat instead of lontong for his lontong sayur. Ahhh, never mind, the taste is not different.

His hands always move very quick to cut the ketupat (rice cake) and pour the vegetable curry on top of the rice cake.
It’s spicy! But trust me, he does a great execution to produce the perfect harmony of the flavor in his lontong sayur. One of the perfect dish for breakfast.

Some customers prefer to take home the lontong sayur, some choose to eat on site.

Usualy at 9am, his lontong sayur are gone! You can find only his empty cart, because he leaves the cart in the market and just bring home his pans and cutleries.

Hope you have a good breakfast for starting your day, as we have here 🙂

Vania Samperuru is the woman who takes all the beautiful photos and writes those interesting stories about food and travel in Adventurelious.

Vania is considered as one of the most famous foodie blogger among the Indonesians. Her talent in food photography is beyond doubt. She has been awarded by tons of badges through several food photography contests online. She is simply amazing!

At present she is living in Jakarta with her two adorable children and husband.

Keep in touch

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves."Thomas Wolfe

Copyright

All written content and photos, unless otherwise stated, are the original work of Sefa Firdaus |Any use without permission is prohibited| If you are interested in using my texts and photos, please contact me!